Euphorbia tithymaloides 'Variegatus' fka Pedilanthus tithymaloides

The Devil's Backbone is popular as both an indoor tropical plant and, in frost-free climates, a handsome landscape specimen. It's native to warmer parts of North America and much of Central America, including Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean. It is considered somewhat endangered in parts of Mexico.

The plant has green and white variegated leaves that may sometimes develop a rosy blush tint in warm weather. It also has dramatic, colorful leaf bracts that look like slipper-shaped flowers, as well as unusual "crooked" yet symmetrical stems. This has earned the plant many intriguing folk names including zig-zag plant, Christmas candle, fiddle flower, Persian lady slipper, Jacob's ladder, red bird flower, and Japanese poinsettia.

Because the "flowers" are actually leaf bracts, they don't produce any fragrance. The bracts appear in summer, but do not last a very long time.